Deep-Fried Whatever

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Pffft. Lame. They didn't deep-fry theketchup.note For those who can't quite make it out, yes, that is indeed a deep fried double cheese burger.

"Americans love to eat. They are fatally attracted to the slow-death of fast food. Hot dogs, corn dogs, triple bacon cheeseburgers, deep-fried butter dipped in pork fat and cheese-whiz, mayonnaise-soaked barbecue, mozzarella patty melts. Americans will eat anything. Anything. ANYTHING. Shit, if you were selling fried raccoons assholes on a stick, Americans would buy them and eat them! Especially if you were to dip them in butter and put a little salsa on them!"

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In the practice of deep-frying, your item of choice is submerged in hot oil or fat, where it cooks extremely quickly and gains a crispy, crunchy and very tasty exterior. Soaking things in boiling-hot fat can make anything delicious. A common practice is to take something already delicious, loaded with fat and sugar, and deep-fry it FOR EXTRA FLAVOR. When this trope is pushed to absurd levels, it is always Played for Laughs.

In Real Life, deep-frying is popular in America (particularly in the Deep South), Scotland, and parts of Asia. A possible reason for its success is because deep-frying is so much faster than other methods of cooking. Once the oil is hot enough, the food cooks in minutes. This is particularly good in hot climates (like the American South and the parts of Asia, like Guangdong Province in China, where it is widespread), because when it's hot outside and there's no air conditioning, you want to stay out of the hot kitchen as much as possible. And since the heat makes a seal in the outer layer of the food, the inside is not as greasy as one might expect (if it is, someone did something wrong), as opposed to pan frying.

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Indeed, properly deep-fried food is actually steamed on the inside, as the high temperature causes the water present in most food to vaporize; the pressure generated from the steam combined with the fact that fat and water repel each other ensures that the fat only penetrates the outermost layer if you've done things right.note This is why, when one makes french fries/chips well, the outer layer is crispy while the inner parts seem more like a baked or boiled potato. Note, however, that batter and breading almost always will absorb the fat; if you do things properly, though, whatever it is you've battered or breaded still won't absorb the fat, which is why properly-made fried chicken isn't greasy on the inside. A dash of Hot Sauce or a squeeze of lemon is always appreciated.

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Examples:

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A parody: Jones' Good Ass BBQ and Foot Massage - "We'll fry anything you want for $5.99. And those that's friable or edible, we gonna make it deliciounable! We will fry parts of the chicken you didn't even know where friable! The beak! The feathers! We'll fry candy bars! And all that European stuff you don't normally eat (french bread, french fries, french onion dip), you can bring it down and we'll fry it for you!"

Comic Books

Gravity Falls: Lost Legends: According to an Easter Egg website full of facts about secondary characters from the show and its comic book adaptation, Pacifica Northwest has a secret fondness for "deep-fried anything".

Watchmen: In prison, Rorschach uses hot frying oil as a weapon in the cafeteria. He burns the other guy badly enough to kill him.

Film

Used in an unusual way in the Japanese movie The Machine Girl: Tempura is a deadly weapon. Several characters get their limbs fried off.

In Scotland, PA, the McBeths threaten to kill Norm Duncan by shoving his face into the frying oil, then end up actually doing so by accident. Sort of. You really had to be there. This also serves as the source of Pat McBeth's Out, Damned Spot! scenes: When Duncan dies, a small splash of frying oil burns her hand; as she goes mad, she becomes convinced that the burn is getting worse, even though it's completely healed.

In an extra feature on the DVD of Super Size Me, Morgan Spurlock visits a fish and chip shop that also experiments with deep-frying candy bars. Since Morgan is still on his McDonald's-only diet while they visit, he defers to his cameraman.

In the Irish movie The Van, the main characters renovate a chipper (a food service truck) and go into business selling fried food. Although the battered and deep-fried used diaper may be presumed to be an inversion of this trope.

In Shrek 2, this appears to be the Fairy Godmother's standard way of dealing with stress.

Fairy Godmother: I don't care whose fault this was, just get it sorted! And could someone please bring me something deep fat fried and smothered in chocolate...

Bill Forsyth's Comfort and Joy, set in Glasgow, ends with protagonist Alan creating a truce between rival ice cream vendors (from the same family) by getting them to collaborate on selling ice cream fritters. Since only he knows the secret ingredient essential to making them, he gets to call the shots on the deal.

The maternal figure in 1997's Soul Food has diabetes due to her weekly diet of. . . you guessed it. Soul food.

The Edinburgh-set scenes in Avengers: Infinity War feature a chippy with a prominent sign in the window saying "We will deep fry your kebab".

Jokes

A man bought a deep-fat fryer and started using it on everything. Breakfast cereal; fried in batter. Sandwiches; fried in batter. Apples; fried in batter. Then he found himself getting short of breath and went to see his doctor, who explained that a diet like that simply wasn't healthy, and could lead to death. The doctor told him he was frittering his life away.

Literature

In I Shall Wear Midnight, both Tiffany and the Nac Mac Feegle themselves list one of their good points as the invention of the deep-fried stoat. Although the Feegles acknowledge that it's mostly a good point because it saved some other poor devil from inventing it. It's still probably better than a non-deep-fried stoat.

In the third Artemis Fowl novel, two of the villain's henchmen, both of whom qualify as Dumb Muscle, spend most of their page time going on tangents in the background. At one point the conversation turns to sushi, and how it "wasn't bad" after ten minutes in the deep fat fryer — unexpectedly, this happens overlapping with their one Not So Harmless moment.

Live Action TV

On a Christmas episode of Men Behaving Badly, Tony gets given a deep-fat fryer for Christmas. Over the course of the episode he deep-fries an array of unlikely foodstuffs, culminating in him deep-frying the telephone.

Arrested Development featured the Cornballer, one of the Bluth family's more unfortunate business ventures. A deep-fat fryer for making fried corn balls in the home, it was discontinued in the US because the device was scalding hot to the touch. It was still being sold in Mexico, where angry citizens imprisoned an escaped George Sr. after recognizing him from the infomercial for it.

Used brilliantly on Gilmore Girls in the episode with four Thanksgivings. Sookie's husband Jackson deep-fried the turkey, then got drunk and began deep frying other things. As Sookie, a genius master chef, got drunkerand drunker in order to cope, she lamented that the only reason the mattresses were intact was that they wouldn't fit, a yell was heard in the background of: 'Deep-fried Shoe!' At which point she buried her face in her hands. She eventually holds up her margarita glass in a resigned toast.

In an episode of Farscape, Crichton doesn't even have the standard food cubes to eat, and so he decides to fry the little creatures that are used for brushing teeth. When told they aren't edible, Crichton says "You can eat anything if it's fried!" Unfortunately for him, he's wrong.

Kenan & Kel: In one episode, Kenan and Kel are asked by a girl Kenan likes to hold on to her shirt that her grandmother knitted for her before she died. Three guesses as to what happens next. The deep-frying only happens in the end. There were other mishaps.

On "The Gunslinger" episode, Crow and Servo decided to deep fry the fan mail. When asked why, Servo responded with, "I'm not sure I understand the question..."

Dr. Forrester deep fried Frank as a punishment.

TV's Frank: There, I'm deep fried. Can we be friends now?

In the "Track of the Moon Beast" episode, Crow and Servo order an onion blossomer, and proceed to blossom and deep-fry everything in sight, including a bowling ball, a caulking gun, Mike's wallet, and Servo's head, which Crow serves with a peppercorn ranch dipping sauce. Servo enjoys his deep-fried head.

In the season 11 episode "The Loves of Hercules," deep-fried turkey inspires Servo to come up with a combination deep fat fryer and dunk tank which (ostensibly) allows the turkey to be dropped into the hot oil from a safe distance. Jonah is put off by the way the setup anthropomorphizes the turkey, though (especially after Servo and Crow suggest imagining the turkey insulting him and his mother).

Paula Deen's many cooking shows involve extremes of deep fried food. Among the most egregious examples was an actual cheesecake wrapped in wonton dough and given the deep fry treatment.

Naturally, Good Eats has done several episodes on the subject of frying. In the first dedicated episode, Fry Hard, Alton makes fish and chips in an attempt to silence his busybody sister Marsha, who is (at the moment) on an anti-fat crusade, by pointing out that frying is only unhealthy if you do it wrong. This is a point Alton (a Georgian through and through)note Technically, he was born in Los Angeles, but his family was displaced Georgia folk and he grew up in the state. repeatedly hammered home whenever he brought up the Southern techniques of frying (especially, it seemed, after his fellow Georgian Deen started demonstrating her absurdly fattening recipes on her show; there may be an element of defensiveness about that).

In a MAD Tv parody of Aaron SpellingAction Girl shows, a trio of fast-food workers find a bomb in their restaurant. So one of the girls dunks the bomb in batter and deep-fries it, and it explodes harmlessly within the breading shell. The audience cheers.

Castle: Castle sleeps with his first ex-wife when she rolls into town for a short time. He compares it to the guilty pleasure of a "deep fried Twinkie".

Howard: Sheldon knows football? Leonard: Apparently. Howard: I mean, Quidditch, sure. But football? Leonard: Sheldon, how do you know this stuff? Sheldon:I grew up in Texas. Football is ubiquitous in Texas. Pro football, college football, high school football, peewee football - in fact, every form of football except the original, European football, which most Texans believe to be a Commie plot. Leonard: Unbelievable. Sheldon: If youre interested, I also know all about frying meat that isnt chicken as if it were chicken. Leonard: So you could teach me? Sheldon: Football or chicken-fried meats?

Conversational Troping in the Arrow episode "Al Sah-Him", when Nyssa asks Laurel why "your culture" has to deep-fry everything, and Laurel replies that everything tastes better deep-fried. However, they're discussing ordinary french fries, not one of the more outrageous examples of the trope.

Community - the study group gets tired of missing the chicken fingers at the cafeteria, and in a parody of mob movies, they get Abed installed as fry cook and run the lunchroom like a criminal organization.

One of Greendale's many weird and worthless classes is called "Can You Fry This?", during which students shout out foods (and occasionally nonfoods), for the professor to unfailingly respond that yes, you can fry those.

Osamu Tezuka's Ode to Kirihito has a character who is a sideshow freak, 'the human tempura'. She covers herself in batter and is deep-fried, then with split-second timing is brought out again and bursts through the dough, alive. Her training was hell and normal circuses won't take her because her act is too depraved. She ultimately tragically dies doing this with an improvised spoon to make money. Apparently she didn't realize that her basic tumbling talents were much safer and easier and just as likely to net some dough performing on the street.

Shizune: [Fried things are always delicious. There is always an exception for them.]

In Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 4: The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood, one of the food items that the Flotsam Island Ladies' Night Buffet Table will include, according to W.P. Grindstump, is the "Deep-Fried Petit Fours".note In case you didn't know, a "petit four" is a small cake confection generally eaten at the end of a meal or served as part of a large buffet or dessert.

Many Space Station 13 codebases include a deep fryer in the station's kitchen/cafeteria, which can most often be used to deep-fry anything to make it edible. Anything. Repeatedly. From actual food like deep-fried hamburgers (or simply deep-fried raw meat), to inorganic items like clothing, radios, floor tiles, or the valuable, normally highly-toxicplasma, to rare or even irreplacable one-of-a-kind items like the Captain's Spare ID, Space Station 13 may very well be the triumphant example of this trope. note It's also one of the most common methods of trolling/griefing, as it requires very little actual effort and tends to annoy people to no end. Especially if it's their stuff you're frying.

In Oxygen Not Included, the cheapest (and worst) food item you can make in a Microbe Musher is a Mush Bar, which is basically a lump of dirt and water processed into something vaguely edible. You can make it slightly more palatable by building an Electric Grill and deep-frying a Mush Bar into a Mush Fry (bringing its quality up from Grisly to Terrible).

One Sluggy Freelance arc involved a quest for The Ultimate Food Preparation/Additive. Competitors included Chocolate, Salt, Garlic Butter and, finally, 'Battered and Deep Fried'. Which won out in the end. Salt was a clear contender, and may have won without the intervention of Bun-bun.

Heart Attack on a Plate.Note To clarify, SCP-807 is a ceramic plate that turns any food that is served on it into an artery clogging delight with enhanced flavor & aroma. Unfortunately, said food is so unhealthy that most creatures undergo cardiac arrest five minutes after eating it.

Webrestaurantstore.com, which usually offers rather reasonable how-to cooking videos has one featuring the host attempting to deep-fry gnocchi. It does not go well. Inspired by the video, other cooks tried it, and as it turns out, it can be done, but you have to boil the gnocchi first.

A yearly trek for Team Snob is the Illinois State Fair, where they do an episode of "Brad Tries..." featuring whatever happens to look good (or bad) and includes several fried dishes. Examples of which are deep fried shark (bland, not sharky), a deep fried pickle w/ 1000 island sriracha inside (gross), and deep fried cookie dough topped with powdered sugar (heavenly).

The YouTube channel CultMoo runs a series called "Deep Fried What?", where they deep fry various foods and taste to see if the results any good.

In one episode, the Smiths own a deep fryer and have a conversation at the beginning of the episode about how good the food they cook with it is. Then Francine drops her ink pen in the fryer, takes a bite out of it and remarks that "it even makes this pen taste good". The plot of the episode revolves around the county outlawing transfats, making all the deep-fried food taste like crap and Stan enlisting Steve in smuggling transfats across the state line.

Francine developed something of an obsession with frying stuff in that episode to the point that she appeared borderline insane. She was planning on deep frying a live chick, and later she takes Steve's new bunny right out of his hands and cheerily declares that "I'm gonna pop you right in the fryer!"

When Moe's becomes a family-friendly T.G.I. Friday's-type restaurant in "Bart Sells His Soul", he purchases a deep-fryer which deep fries everything, including champagne bottles.

Moe: The deep fryer's here. Heh heh, I got it used from the navy. You can flash-fry a buffalo in forty seconds.

Homer: Forty seconds? But I want it now!

In another episode, Homer ordered from a fast food drive-thru and got everything deep fried - including the bag And a Diet Coke.

Homer deep-fries his shirt in one episode. Even clothing's better deep fried!

Homer: And you said they couldn't deep-fry my shirt! Marge: I didn't say they couldn't, I said you shouldn't.

Another episode has the family visit a boardwalk carnival, and one of the food stands offers fried dough - America's Worst Legal Food! Never leaves your body! Turns out there'd recently been a "truth in advertising" law passed so the vendors had to be honest about their food.

In The Replacements, when Todd and Riely run off and join the carnival, Riley ends up running the 'deep fry anything' stand. The things she gets handed to deep fry include roadkill and a football.

In a similar episode, The Fairly OddParents! had Timmy run away to a carnival actually a fake carnival the fairies set up for any godchildren who want to run away from home until they come to their senses and Cosmo becomes enamored with deep-fried possum "with extra rabies". He says he never wants to go back to safely prepared food again.

In the King of the Hill episode "Mutual of Omabwah", Bill and Boomhauer get a deep fryer, and use it on lots of things, including an already deep-fried chicken leg.

The Ren & Stimpy Show had a cartoon about "Billy the Beef Tallow Boy", who deep-fried everything that was brought before him, even inedible objects like a car and a pair of shoes.

Megas XLR's "Space Booty" has Coop order from a machine loads of "Philly cheesesteak sandwiches wrapped in bacon and deep fried" and stuff them in his pockets. He later squeezes them dry of their enormous quantities of fried grease to use as oil for MEGAS.

Rocket Power touches on it. When the Stimpletons are asked to temporarily watch the Shore Shack, Merv at first objects, until Violet says "Let's play with the deep fat fryer" and he is quieted down.

"Squeaky Boots": When SpongeBob's new squeaky boots began to drive Mr. Krabs crazy, he steals them and hides them under the floorboards of the Krusty Krab. But on seeing how awful Spongebob feels about losing the boots, Krabs' guilty conscience causes him to hear the sound of their squeaking constantly, Tell-Tale Heart style, until he cracks up completely. Mr. Krabs proceeds to pull the boots out of their hiding place, dunk them in frying oil, and eat them.

One episode features an escalating grease war between Krabs and Plankton.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force: During a 4th of July barbecue, Shake and Carl deep-fry an entire cow injected with cheese in its udders and force fed it bacon and ranch dressing before it died. Afterwards, they just leave the oil to fester in the front yard until Frylock forces them to dispose of it properly. This being Shake and Carl, they just dump it in the woods, provoking the wrath of the trees inside of it.

In South Park, Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman sit down to eat KFC, but as soon as the others turn their backs, Cartman gobbles up the skin for himself. The others complain that the fried skin is the best part. Kenny even starts crying.

Beavis and Butt-Head spend a lot of their time torturing bugs and small animals in the Burger World deep-fryer, and on atleast two occasions have served the results to the customers. Neither time the customers noticed. In fact, the "special seasoned curly fries" (deep fried nightcrawlers) were a big hit.

In Regular Show, there is a restaurant named "Fry it Up," where a large variety of fried foods are available.

In "Rigby's Body", Mordecai and Rigby work in the park's snack bar, where they deep fry several foods while eating as much as they can. Rigby even eats a deep fried soda, cup and all.

Duckman once visited a factory that made deep fried waffles and roast beef on a stick as part of a case. The place is a complete death trap because of all the grease runoff. The food itself tastes good, but...

Fried ice cream. For those wondering how it's possible: first you bread a ball of ice cream, and then there's two ways to fry it. There's the "fry it very quickly" method or the "freeze rock-solid, then fry almost as quickly" method. Generally not recommended for the inexperienced chef.

Both the website and the blog "This is why you're fat" are full of these among other heart attack causers. (examples include: Double Bypass Burger - burger topped with five slices of bacon, four slices of cheese, two fried eggs, mayo, lettuce, tomato, and onion between two buns made up of two grilled-cheese sandwhiches, deep fried ravioli, and deep fried corn flake twinkies). So good yet soooooo bad!

Deep fried turkey for Thanksgiving! Profoundly dangerous, but incredibly good, it's something of a high-risk, high-reward approach to the Thanksgiving bird. Alton Brown once built a derrick to make the entire procedure somewhat safe. It's not that dangerous if you cook it outside, follow all the safety tips (Brown's method may seem extreme, but it isn't that much work considering what that oil can do), and keep a fire extinguisher on hand. And unlike most of the examples here, fried turkey is as healthy as it is delicious: as it's not battered, little to no grease is absorbed during cooking: sure, the skin ends up crisped, but the interior simply steams as the water it naturally contains boils.note In point of fact, a well-done deep frying will usually be "the outer tiny layer will be oil-crisped, but the interior simply steams in its native water"—that's actually sort of the point of a good deep frying, as in a good deep fry the pressure of the water vapor trying to get out of the dish puts against the oil trying to soak in. It's only when batter gets involved that the issue gets more complicated. William Shatner and State Farm presents a PSA on safe turkey frying (protip: if you take away nothing else, remember to fry outside and well away from flammable things like trees and houses, thaw the turkey thoroughly before frying, and be very careful lowering the turkey into the oil).

Scotland brings us the fried Mars Bar (the one that kicked off the whole meme about Scotland and deep-fried everything) as well as deep-fried pizza. The former was initially a joke item that gained popularity. Scotland also has fast food venues which offer to deep fry anything you want.

Glasgow also boasts the Stonner kebab aka deep fried pork sausage kebab. Clocking in at 1.4 kilograms, it contains 1,000 calories and 46 grams of fat. FYI, "Stonner" is a portmanteau of "sausage" and "donner" (Scottish for döner kebab), but is also evocative of the Weegie slang word "stoner", which in the immortal words of Stephen Fry, means "a stiffie, aye".

In general, this trope is popular in Scotland, which makes sense (the Deep South's obsession with frying everything comes from the Scottish origins of many if not most ancestral Southerners). In fact, it's a country which will forever be associated with deep-fried everything. Although the nation is making mighty attempts to change this perception in the eyes of the rest of the world, its nutritionists are facing a battle as uphill as Ben Nevis. Read more here.

Among the offerings at the 2011 California State Fair: deep-fried KoolAid.

The Big E state fair in New England strives to up its deep frying game every year. Deep fried offerings have included: oreos, KoolAid, jelly beans, apple pie, butter, and even deep fried martinis.

County fairs are good places to find fried foods, and often they will have something different every year, such as deep-fried snickers bars or pickles. From Dave Barry's Only Travel Guide You'll Ever Need, describing the advantages of vacationing in the US:

"Often there will be local fairs and festivals, where the kids can ride on the Whirl-'n'-Puke while Mom and Dad enjoy tasty local cuisine such as French fried potatoes, fried chicken, fried onion rings, fried dough, and fried frying oil fried with fried sugar."

Fried dough is basically funnel cake without the funnel. A slight difference, but a difference nonetheless, and some individuals in New England will rage if you mistake their fried dough for funnel cake or vice versa.

Similar to the above-mentioned deep-fried Mars bar are deep-fried Twinkies or deep fried Oreos.

Hostess started selling their own frozen deep-fried Twinkies in 2016. Just stick 'em in the oven for a few minutes (or re-deep fry them if you're willing to go that far).

Chimichangas, i.e. deep fried burritos.

To add insult to an injury, Chicken Kiev. If you discount the chicken, it's basically a deep-fried butter. With herbs, though. Everything's healthier with herbs.

South East Asians are very familiar with fried bananas as a snack item. Fried bananas are sometimes found in Brazilian restaurants, too, and are a common sight in Caribbean cuisine, as well.

A variety of countries in Latin America have fried plantain (platanos). Plantains may be bananas, but they're more starchy than sweet: kinda like potatoes. Platanos deep fried with sour cream and refried beans is one of the more bizarre - not to mention delicious - aspects of Central American cuisine.

This is not just an American trope — in Taiwan they have little carts called xiansuji, which offer a variety of items to be deep fried, including bread, pork blood, chicken feet, and corn dogs, not to mention more regular fare such as chicken, hot dogs, green beans, etc.

Tempura makes EVERYTHING delicious. For those unable to track down authentic tempura flour, instant pancake mix makes for a decent enough substitute. Tempura also has an air and level of sophistication not found with other deep-fried foods like fried chicken or fish and chips. There are two main types of ingredients that are used for tempura: Fish and other seafood, and vegetables, and even then, not all fish/seafood and vegetables are appropriate for tempura. The art of cooking tempura is actually a complicated affair that can take years to master (much like sushi).

Another Japanese variety of deep fried food is karaage. This is much simpler as it only requires lightly coating the meat or fish in with seasoned wheat flour or potato starch mix and frying them up. Chicken karaage is a staple food item in Japanese pubs.

A restaurant in Brooklyn owned by a Brit called the Chip Shop will fry up anything you want. The menu includes deep-fried pizza.

Nearly every culture has some variant of deep fried fat as a way to make use of the stuff they'd usually throw away. The American South is the one of the few places where people who don't have to eat the stuff still do.

In Eastern and Central Europe the lard is usually rendered not by boiling, but by frying the fat in question, after which the resulted cracklings (called "shkvarky" or variations thereof in most Slavic languages), seasoned with salt and pepper, are a common garnish and flavoring in most savory dishes. In Russia, Ukraine and Belarus the pork shkvarky are preferred, while Czechs love their goose ones.

By the same token, traditionally-produced shmaltz—that is, rendered poultry fat produced in the Ashkenazi Jewish traditionnote Ashkenazim needed to use poultry fat for frying meats/frying things that would be eaten with meat dishes/use with meat. Unlike the Mediterranean/Middle Eastern regions where the Sephardim and Mizrahim lived, they couldn't get pareve vegetable oils, like olive oil and sesame oil; the only widely available fats in northern Europe were butter—which was kosher but couldn't be used with meat—and animal fats. The gentiles all used lard, which of course is not kosher, so the Ashkenazim came up with shmaltz as a substitute.—is usually made by the same process, with the fatty bits fried with onions to produce the fat. The cracklings—called gribenes—are a favorite in Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine. (Note: Shmaltz is distinct from Schmalz, which is the German word for any rendered animal fat, including lard and clarified butter; similarly, Grieben, the German term for pork cracklings, is different from gribenes even though clearly the Yiddish is derived from the German.)

Cracklin's (yes, spelled without the "g" in local vernacular) are a delicacy in southern Louisiana made from deep-fried, highly seasoned cubes of pork belly with the rind. Yup, it's bacon, Cajun style!

Indian Fry Bread. Essentially a flat, plate sized donut. It can be served as a dinner with chili or stew on top, or a dessert with powdered sugar and/or honey. Mexican Sopapilla is similar, but puffy so you put the topping on the inside. Outside the American Southwest, this is known as an elephant ear.

In several Canadian reserves you can encounter fried bannock (a flat bread similar to scones that's made primarily of lard), Bannock Pops (bannock stuffed with seasoned ground beef and sometimes potatoes and deep fried), and hound dogs (hot dogs wrapped in bannock and deep fried). All of these are delicious and they're all created by people who have some of the worst rates of diabetes and heart disease in the world.

On the Cooking Network program "David Rocco's La Dolce Vita", David Rocco explains that a common Italian snack is a "fried pizza" which involves taking individual-sized portions of pizza dough and frying them in a skillet until they're crispy, sauteeing a tomato sauce (with garlic and basil) in a separate skillet, then topping the fried pizza dough with the tomato sauce and some parmesan. He also made a sweet variant where the fried pizza dough is topped with honey.

A restaurant in Memphis called Dyer's brings us the deep fried burger, where they deep fried their burger patties in the same grease they have been using for 100 years. (If that sounds concerning, don't worry too much about that; they filter it daily and top it off to replace lost oil.)

In the epitome of cool, Scotch Eggs. Take a hard boiled egg, wrap it in sausage, bread it, then deep fry the thing. Traditionally, a scotch egg is soft-boiled (aka coddled) instead, which provides a better mix of textures (crunchy coating, meaty sausage, chewy albumen, creamy yolk): for a modern take on how to do this, "culinary Mad Scientist" HestonBlumenthaldelivers. The best part, though, is that pretty much any egg can be coddled... while the (probably Scottish) lunatic hasn't yet been found that would try this with a Cadbury Creme Egg, it's really only a matter of time.

The Monte Cristo involves a sandwich piled with turkey, bacon, and Swiss cheese, dipped in batter, then deep-fried. To serve, top it with a generous sprinkling of powdered sugar and some jam or preserves. There are variations on the theme (including only batter-dipping/frying the bread, using ham instead of bacon, various types of cheese, not to mention the specific topping), but all of them are tremendously unhealthy. Naturally, The King loved these.

Natto is a famously Japanese dish consisting of partially fermented soybeans, which even many Japanese dislike strongly. If you claim to dislike it, proponents will suggest you try it deep fried; when fried it loses its potentially offensive texture but retains its cheesy flavor and nutritious properties.

Deep fried waffles. With butter and maple syrup just like you'd have if it they weren't fried. They are delicious.

Deep fried cheesecake, which may or may not be coated in chocolate and come with whip cream.

In a probable aversion, a woman reported finding a fried chicken head in a box of McDonald's wings. But hey, if you're gonna eat a chicken head at all...

Deep-fried vegetables. Zuchinni, broccoli, summer squash, cauliflower, onions, whatever. Battered, deep-fried cauliflower is traditional in some parts of the world; these are a popular breakfast and lunch item in Egypt in particular. Deep fried onions are amazing, because they turn crispy and lose the wet crunchiness that usually makes eating onions undesirable; examples that use them are the Indian classic 'Onion Bhaji' and the Swedish hot dog topping 'Rostad Lök'.

Speaking of Egypt... In the Middle East, the Egyptians are noted for their penchant for frying. Falafel—which is of course deep-fried ground legume pattiesnote In most of the world, the legume is chickpeas, but in Egypt, fava beans are preferred.—is probably the invention of Egyptian Christians in late antiquity trying to find a good and tasty source of protein during Lent, when the unique fasting rules of their church required them to be vegan. Deep-fried onions are also a critical ingredient in the Egyptian national dish kushari (incidentally also vegan in its most traditional formsnote Since about the mid-2000s, there is a fashion for adding meat to kushari among those who can afford it. Shawerma is a popular addition, but sautéed liver is a favorite, especially in Alexandria (which is famous across Egypt for its Kibda Skandarani ("Alexandrian Liver"), thin-sliced sautéed beef or lamb liver with hot peppers and cumin). and thus acceptable for Lenten eating). Deep-fried fish and deep-fried battered balls of ground shrimp are also traditional and popular. Egyptians also fry their garlic before using it, to the derision of their neighbors; they are also in the habit of frying liver (not battering it, fortunately), to the derision of the Lebanese (who eat it raw. Good luck with that.). There may be historical and environmental reasons for this mania for frying; the earliest record of frying comes from Egypt, about 2500 BCE, so it's fair to say the Egyptians probably invented Deep Fried Whatever, or at least Fried Whatever; and given that the Nile Valley makes Egypt stupidly humid as well as stupidly hot in the summertime, it's fair to say that the desire to keep cooking times short that drove the American South to frying also apply to Egypt.

Chileans and Argentinians are VERY fond of the Chorrillana: French fries, fried steak strips, fried onions and fried eggs (sometimes friend wurst, too). Excellent pub food, and not to mention cheap: a single serving is big enough to feed at least two or three people.

Probably the most famous place to get deep fried food in the United States is the Texas State Fair. Every year, hundreds of food vendors show up, and all they offer is deep fried food. Its a heart attack's dream (and a health nut's nightmare). They even have a special contest to determine the best new deep fried recipes; several of the aforementioned "crazy" deep-fried dishes (e.g. deep-fried butter and fried coke) are products of the competition. Deep fried ice cream? They got it. Deep fried beer? They got that too. Deep fried cotton candy?!!! It really is enough to make a man think nothing cannot be fried.

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